A new movie shows off the just-announced new MechWarrior
game. The clip combines cinematics and gameplay to fairly impressive effect. The
clip can be found on the
YouTube (thanks Kxmode), and on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.

Power suits and robots will be the future of war and they will be very versatile. What makes me laugh about Mech Warrior is that they still have human pilots.

Actually, there is something to be said for human casualties. It's been postulated by philosophers that even if we ever have AI that can replace humans on the battlefield, we never will completely, since without casualties, the only cost of war is potentially economic, which can encourage perpetual, never-ending warfare.

The whole point of war is to make the other side lose something. You can't win if the other side only deploys machines.

Also, it's been proven time and again, most recently in Iraq, that you can't occupy a country with an air force. You need boots on the ground. Mostly to maintain day-to-day security, and partially because soldiers on the ground allow you to become more humanized, and not just be "the enemy". If the occupying force was purely machine, even if it could respond like a human, my suspicion is that you'd see perpetual insurrections and occupation would be impossible. After all, you're fighting machines, not humans.

Mechanization and AI is all well and good, but at the end of the day, in war, it's about bleeding.

One of the lead guys who worked at FASA Interactive during Mechwarrior 4 was an expert on why Battlemechs were ridiculously implausible yet he was able to set aside that thinking to make a pretty fun game.

That's what's all it about.

They are multi-ton, bipedal walking tanks that would give off one hell of a heat signature, not to mention the questionable practicality of a 'Mech as a battle platform. But I digress, I liked walking over people in Mechwarrior 4

I wanna be immersed into thinking I am in the field piloting a Mech. That means the enviro has to suck me in. The sounds, the Mech visuals and weaps effects, incockpit views.... the motions I go thru to pilot...the way Mechs move.. the list goes on.

Of course it is not realistic. But, it has to FEEL right. MW 3 did it right back in the day. It wouldn`t be too hard to achieve this with todays pc power.

So the future will be small, efficient, fast. Enjoy mechwarrior for what it is, a game, in an impossible to imagine future.

One of the lead guys who worked at FASA Interactive during Mechwarrior 4 was an expert on why Battlemechs were ridiculously implausible yet he was able to set aside that thinking to make a pretty fun game.

Who the hell cares what happens in the Real World™, I play games to escape "realism".

First, let me say that I don't particularly care whether the Btech universe is realistic or not. I just care that it's fun. That said, I wanted to go over some things from memory from back when I read a lot of the Btech lit and see if it goes any further towards explaining the relative ineffectiveness of air power.

Air superiority is generally not much of an issue in Battletech. Space superiority is. I remember that there was something akin to the Geneva Conventions that protects jumpships from attack by anyone, simply because they are irreplaceable, as much of the technology involved is not well understood since the collapse of the Star League. Aerospace fighters and dropships are about the only things in the air with guns, and dropships are generally too expensive to risk. So you have just the fighters and nobody to really coordinate them since the space assets tend to get in and get out in a hurry.

So the fighters have to rely on their own sensors and intel relayed from other units. Many battlemechs have anti-missile defenses that can shoot down incoming missiles well short of their blast range, not to mention their own AA capabilities and those of their support units.

When taking planets and cities, you have to have forces on the ground. Battlemechs are generally the shock troops, but they are almost always supported by mobile infantry and armor units. The mechs knock down the defenses and the support forces roll in to mop up and take actual control.

Ok, where does that leave us? I don't know, but the situation is internally consistent enough for me as long as I don't deliberately start trying to figure out holes in the explanations. I'm probably not even remembering much of the information that supports this situation. It's good enough that I can sit back and enjoy the game.

This comment was edited on Jul 10, 2009, 12:53.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

Surf - Very neat, but let face it, one jet armed with HE missiles would drop both mechs in seconds.

Why do you think that? The only reason it's true in our current military environment is that offense is far more powerful than defense. Flip that coin and you get tanks - and yes BattlemMechs.

You can't do predator style remote control because no one has air or space superiority. Note in the beginning they lost satellite coms and had to deploy battlefield specific coms. When you're traveling across space you have an extremely limited amount of material you can drop on a planet to take control - and ton for ton/m3 for m3 a Battlemech is the deadliest thing in the MW universe.

Anyway, I agree with everyone saying this is prerendered. The car bouncing on the top of the garage makes me suspicious. The mech appearing out of nowhere makes me suspicious. The cut-aways don't, because they could be for effect. But all the damage sure does. As does the hand hitting buttons. And the lack of a HUD.Completely a cinematic and they're lying to us. Or so I suspect. Could always be wrong and they're doing amazing things.

Actually what's more likely is that it's using in-game assets, and the game's graphics/physics engine for a scripted 'cut-scene' type render. Most games these days don't bother full rendering cut scenes when the in-game graphics engine is more than good enough to do it for you.

Yes, it's unrealistic. But it's also fun. And sometimes that's more important.

Also, no one's going around hawking it as the only possible future for mankind, or even a likely future for mankind. It's just a game.

How some of y'all get through the day eludes me sometimes. Relax.

If you think his opinion on games featuring war is funny you should see his thoughts on politics.

Anyway, I agree with everyone saying this is prerendered. The car bouncing on the top of the garage makes me suspicious. The mech appearing out of nowhere makes me suspicious. The cut-aways don't, because they could be for effect. But all the damage sure does. As does the hand hitting buttons. And the lack of a HUD.Completely a cinematic and they're lying to us. Or so I suspect. Could always be wrong and they're doing amazing things.

By 2015-2020 the CPU in the real world will be able to surpass the human brain in calculations per second. After that the growth rate of CPU computations will be exponential.

What we will face? Robots will do our tasks or nearly every menial job will become obsolete. Why drive when you car can get you where you want faster, safer and cheaper because it will be in constant communication with everything around it thanks to IPV6.

People have been saying this shit since I was a boy, over 20 years ago. By 2000 I was supposed to have a robot maid. Where the fuck is it? Roomba doesn't count. And where's my flying fucking car? Popular Mechanics told me it was right around the corner 20 years ago!

By 3015 people will still probably be working on getting AI to do anything other than charge right at you guns blazing.

Totally agree with WIldone. This is pure rendered shnozzle. If you're hoping for something slightly sim like the originals then it's time you took some of those anti-capitalist wake up pills from back when big business hit gaming. This is nothing but a name cash-in, arcade romp with stupid gfx dev budgets and weak gameplay.

The future will be small, fast, hard hitting units, not these lumbering king kong "targets".

Power suits and robots will be the future of war and they will be very versatile. What makes me laugh about Mech Warrior is that they still have human pilots.

By 2015-2020 the CPU in the real world will be able to surpass the human brain in calculations per second. After that the growth rate of CPU computations will be exponential.

What we will face? Robots will do our tasks or nearly every menial job will become obsolete. Why drive when you car can get you where you want faster, safer and cheaper because it will be in constant communication with everything around it thanks to IPV6.

So the future will be small, efficient, fast. Enjoy mechwarrior for what it is, a game, in an impossible to imagine future.